[Vertebrate Pests] Of demanding health inspectors and dedicated pest professionals

Most of us are usually vigilant about not "catching a bug" and getting sick, missing work, paying doctor bills and so forth. This is for good reason; according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 62 million people each year "catch a cold" while 50 million of us "catch the flu."

However, most people don’t give a second thought towards getting sick when they "catch a bite" or go shopping at their local supermarket to buy food.

This is ironic isn’t it? Most of us sometime in our lives have experienced some form of illness associated with eating. We may have had the "stomach bug" with the associated vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, fever and possibly muscle aches and pain. In some cases, it may have been severe enough to require hospitalization. And in some cases we even may know of people that died as a result of simply eating a particular food item.

A MATTER OF TIME. According to a 1999 study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases (5:607), up to as many as 76 million people succumb to food-borne illness every year. This is more than the flu or the common cold and includes 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. Estimates from CDC show that each of us in the course of a year has a one-in-four chance of becoming sick from the food we eat. Additional data will be published by the time you are reading this that show these numbers have remained at about the same level the past five years.

Research has shown that there are a wide variety of food-borne microbial pathogens that can harm us, represented by 13 bacterial organisms, four viruses, four protozoans and one nematode. At retail food-handling establishments where we dine or shop for deli-style foods, fruits and vegetables, seafood, poultry, bakeries and other foods, three broad bacterial groups present the highest risk: 1) Campylobacter 2) Salmonellosis and 3) Listeria.

Campylobacter is the leading bacterial cause of diarrhea illness in the United States, with about 2 million cases annually. Campylobacter is found in poultry and poultry products. And it also has been found in sparrows around buildings.

Salmonella is the second leading cause of diarrheal illness, with an estimated of 2 to 3 million cases of salmonellosis annually.

Listeria monocytogenes is of concern around deli meats, deli salads and spreads (pates), smoked seafood and some other foods. Listeria monocytogenes causes about 2,000 to 2,500 cases of listeriosis annually with a staggering mortality rate of 25 percent.

With both salmonella and listeria, rodents, birds and insect pests have been shown to serve as occasional vectors, although the incidence levels associated with pest-vectored food-borne illness are thus far unmeasured. Nevertheless, even if the level is low, it is the potential for transmission that is of concern.

FIGHTING THESE ILLNESSES. To combat the threat of food-borne illnesses, a variety of programs are in place and thousands of professionals in occupations of all types are in place (e.g., FDA’s good manufacturing practices; HACCP; the Safe ServeTM program and others). No doubt, without these efforts there would be far more cases and deaths each year.

But at the retail level specifically, two occupations are especially essential in this fight: health inspectors and pest management professionals.

Community health inspectors evaluate a wide range of conditions at retail food-handling establishments (FHEs) such as water temperature, sanitation conditions, food-handling practices and much more, including the presence or absence of pests. Hopefully, a health inspector sets the bar high for conditions inside a food-handling establishment. In other words, they are demanding. Providing the establishment "passes" the inspection and/or there are no complaints from the community, the next inspection of a facility may not occur for another year.

Pest management professionals, on the other hand, are inside and around food-handling establishments at least on a monthly basis and many times more frequently. Thus, it is the pest professional (providing the on-site professional is observant and pro-active in intent) who becomes intently familiar with the establishment on several facets: cleanliness, organization, building integrity, pest pressures and current pest infestation dynamics. Of course, it is the pest professional who eliminates the potential vectors of microbial pathogens such as rodents, birds, cockroaches and so forth.

It can be argued that the pest professional plays an even more significant role in community health than the health inspector. But it is the health inspector who is supported with the power to levy legal violations, expensive fines and possibly time-consuming visits to city tribunals. In many cities, the result of a health inspector’s report can be accessed via the health department’s Web site or the local newspaper. This kind of financial and public pressure carries weight when a health inspector visits and speaks to a retail proprietor.

And thus the paradox: it is the health inspector who gets the proprietor’s "ear" and undivided attention, while the pest professional is often slighted or in the worst cases, even totally ignored when they make monthly recommendations. Can you imagine if the results of the on-site observations made by a pest professional during his/her repeated visits in between the health inspector’s annual visits in those establishments not so dedicated to food safety were posted on the Web or in the local newspaper?

Nevertheless, between the health inspector and the pest professional prevention is what both parties help accomplish. Frustratingly, it is difficult to measure prevention. From a practical aspect, how does one measure the absence of a pest or a pathogen? Yet, maintaining this "absence" is what both parties strive to do.

How many more possible cases of food-borne illness would occur without health inspections and pest management services remains unknown. But it is known that because pests have been shown to carry or potentially carry nearly all food-borne pathogens, which renders pest management services as an essential component of food safety.

Thus, dedicated pest management service is needed in all types of food-handling establishments. Starting with a good foundation of selling a FHE correctly, followed by the installment of a dedicated pest professional.

To this point, "dedicated" means the pest professional is trained and experienced in inspecting, servicing and communicating IPM recommendations within supermarkets, restaurants, convenience stores, food warehouses and so forth. For example, there is a significant difference between a pest professional that primarily services residences and one that specializes in food-handling establishments. Or certainly there should be.

A pest "professional" showing up and foregoing an inspection, putting out a few "new" glueboards or dabbing a few new placements of cockroach bait and stating on the service ticket "no issues" or "everything is good" month after month, is not maximizing the chance to protect community health.

IMPORTANT WORK. Consider the importance of a sparrow carrying campylobacter in its feces and flying through a supermarket over the deli, produce, meat and fish counters or rodents active in and around the property Dumpster and regularly entering the food store. Removing the sparrow or the rodents via a pest management service is contributing in a significant way towards protecting the health of the members of that community. This is no exaggeration, nor any self-serving embellishment.

The food people shop for, the food they eat while dining out and the food they buy is assumed to have been manufactured, stored, prepared and served in a wholesome manner. But by and large, the public takes it all for granted and is not aware of the professionals behind the scenes helping to minimize the chances of them ingesting a dangerous microbe.

So, go ahead, "catch a bite to eat." Few things in our daily lives are more important than food safety. For the food-handling establishments in my community, I want a demanding health inspector in them working in tandem and ideally, in alliance, with a dedicated pest management professional. Don’t you?

The author is president of RMC Pest Management Consulting and can be reached at rcorrigan@giemedia.com or 765/939-2829.